What's Your Story, Morning Glory?

I'd like to introduce you today to one of my favorite new authors - Steven James. His fantastic, transformational books Story and Sailing Between the Stars are must-reads for any artistic person of faith. He writes:

 

There's a Jewish saying: "God created man because he loves stories." I think that has a lot of truth to it. But not only does God love stories, he loves the people whose stories are being told moment by moment across the globe. And I'm amazed that the story of my choices, mistakes, regrets - the story of my life - actually matters to God.  

 

I think what makes us unique isn't so much our height or shape or fingerprints or eye color but our histories, our stories. Day by day our lives are woven into a giant narrative, and every moment we become more and more the story of who we are. We are our stories. And we only connect with other people when we know their stories. The more intimate we are, the more our stories intertwine. That's one reason divorce is so painful - because it rips a single, deeply threaded story apart into two.

 

Sometimes I think about all the billions of stories swirling around each other on this planet, touching, deepening, unfurling, unraveling. And each one of those stories, each one of those people, mattered so much to the Author of Life that he left heaven and began the dreadful trek to the cross (see John 3:16). The original script called for unity and harmony, but our first parents chose to derail the story of humanity into a graveyard.  

 

"Okay," said the Creator. "Then I'll tell a new story. One that includes a detour through an empty tomb." But to make that tale come true, he had to enter our story himself.

 

When Jesus was born, the Word of God became flesh, enmeshed in a story. THE STORYTELLER ENTERED THE TALE. The author stepped onto the page. The poet whose very words had written the cosmos became part of the text of this world.

 

Like the harmony and the melody living together in the same song, Jesus was divinity and humanity living together in the same heart. He was the Word of God, God's story, in the flesh.*

 

What story does God want to tell through YOU in 2008? Please share your thoughts by posting a comment here. Thank you! 

 

*Steven James, Story: Recapture the Mystery, Revell, 80-81.